CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(l\/lonographs) 


ICMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


Canadian  Instituta  for  Hiatorlcal  MIcroraproductiona  /  InatKut  Canadian  da  microraproduetiona  lilatoriquaa 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  (or  filming  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


0 


D 
D 


D 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couveiture  de  couleur 


I     I  ravers  c'^niaged  / 

I — '  Couverturu  endommagte 

I     I  Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 

' — '  Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pellicula 

I     I  Cover  title  missing  /  Le  tHre  de  couverture  manque 

I     I  Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  gtegraph'ques  en  couleur 

r~]  Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 

Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

I     I  Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 

' — '  Ranches  et/ou  illustratk)ns  en  couleur 

I     I  Bound  with  other  material  / 

' — '  Rell*  avec  d'autres  documents 


Only  editkHi  available  / 
Seule  Mitk>n  disponible 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin  /  La  rellure  serrie  peut 
causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de 
la  marge  int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoratkxis  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have 
been  omitted  from  filming  /  II  se  peut  que  certaines 
pages  blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte.  mais,  kxsque  cela  itait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  et6  filmies. 


L'lnstitut  a  microfilm*  le  meilleur  examplaire  qu'il  iui  a 
m  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire  qui  sont  peut-Stre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifications  dans  ia  m6th- 
ode  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 

I     I     Cotoured  pages/ Pages  de  couleur 

I     I     Pages  damaged/ Pages  endommagees 

I     1     Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
' — '     Pages  restaur6es  et/ou  pelleultes 

r~7      Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
'-*^     Pages  decok)r6es,tachet6esoupk)uee8 

rn     Pages  detached  /  Pages  d«achees 

rif     Showlhrough/ Transparence 

I     I      Quality  of  print  varies  / 

' — '      Quality  Inegale  de  I'Impresslon 

I     I      Includes  supplementary  material  / 

Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

I  I  Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  returned  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image  /  Les  pages 
totalement  ou  partieliement  obscurcies  par  un 
feulllet  d'errata,  une  pelure,  etc.,  ont  iti  filmSes 
k  nouveau  de  fa^on  i  obtenir  la  meilleure 
image  possible. 

I  I  Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
' — '  discolourations  are  filmed  twk:e  to  ensure  the 
best  possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  variables  ou  des  decol- 
orations sont  filmtes  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


D 


Addttk>nal  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppt^mentaires: 


Thjt  inni  ii  f itanad  at  th<  raduction  rnio  ehacfctd  btlow/ 

C*  document  tst  f  iimt  au  taux  de  raduction  indtqui  ci-danous. 

lOX  14X  1«X 


22X 


12X 


2ax 


3:x 


Th*  copy  (ilmtd  har*  hu  baan  raproducad  thanks 
to  tria  9anaro«ltv  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'aHamplaira  film*  fut  raproduit  grica  1  la 
gintroiiti  da: 

Blbllothiqua  natlonala  du  Canada 


Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  iha  bast  quality 
poMibIa  conaidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibility 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  ipacificationa. 


Original  copia*  in  printad  papar  cevara  ara  fllmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  ending  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatraiad  impraa- 
•ion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  apprepriata.  All 
othar  original  capiat  ara  filmad  baginning  on  tha 
firtt  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluttratad  Impras- 
■ion,  and  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  llluttratad  imprattion. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
thall  contain  tha  aymbol  — ^  Imaaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  ▼  Imaaning  "END"), 
whiehavar  appliat. 

Mapt.  plataa.  cham.  ate,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratiot.  Thota  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axpotura  ara  filmad 
baginning  in  tha  uppar  laft  hand  cornar,  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom.  at  many  framat  at 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagramt  illuttrata  tha 
mathod: 


Lat  imagai  luivantat  ent  ttt  raproduitat  avae  la 
plut  grand  toin.  eompta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattata  da  I'atampiaira  film*,  at  an 
conformita  avac  laa  conditiont  du  eontrat  da 
fllmaga. 

Laa  aaamplairaa  eriginauii  dont  la  eouvarturt  an 
papiar  aat  Imprimaa  tont  filmat  an  cemmancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  toit  par  la 
darni*ra  paga  qui  eompona  una  amprainta 
d'imprattion  ou  d'illuttration.  toit  par  la  tacond 
plat,  talon  la  cat.  Tout  lat  autrat  axamplairat 
originaux  tont  filmtt  an  commancant  par  la 
pramiara  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraation  ou  d'illuatration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  tymbolaa  tuivantt  tpparaitra  tur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  talon  la 
cat:  la  aymbola  -«'  tignifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
tymbola  Y  tignifia  "FIN". 

Lat  cartat,  planchat,  tablaaux,  ate.  pauvant  aira 
filmat  i  dat  taux  da  raduction  difftrantt. 
Lortqua  la  documant  att  trap  grand  pour  itra 
raproduit  an  un  taul  clicha.  il  att  filma  t  partir 
da  I'angia  tupAriaur  guucha.  da  gaucha  k  droita. 
at  da  haut  an  bat.  an  pranani  la  nombra 
d'imagat  nacaaaaira.  Laa  diagrammaa  tuivantt 
illuttrant  la  mOthoda. 


1  2  3 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MClOCOrv   IBOtUTION   TBT  CHART 

,ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


I.I 


121 


12.0 


1.8 


^1^1 


1.6 


^     /APPLIED  IIVHDE     Inc 


(716)  *82  -  0300- 


^/ 


'.l.-ifJ.L^.  <•• 


THE    SKCULAR    PRESS 
AND    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 


THK  SKCULAR  PRKSS 
AND   FOREIGN   MISSIONS 


■r 
J.  A.   MAtDONAl.n 

M  A  N  A  R  I  N  G    E  D I T  U  R  ()  K    T  H  f.    <iLOII\ 
TORONTO,  CANADA 


\'h) 


THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS   OF 
SEWANEE  TENNESSEE 


FOREWORD 

Ihe  decision  of  The  University  Press  to  put  into  at- 
tractive printed  form  an  address  prepared  for  a  spe- 
cial occasion  and  delivered  under  somewhat  unusual 
conditions  makes  a  word  of  preface  convenient,  if  not 
necessary. 

This  address  on  The  Secular  Press  and  Foreign 
Missiotis  was  delivered,  as  the  official  report  says, 
"at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  Friday,  March  2,  1906, 
before  3,350  students  and  professors,  representing 
700  institutions  of  higher  learning  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  the  occasion  being  the  Fifth  In- 
ternational Convention  of  the  Student  Volunteer 
Movement  for  Foreign  Missions." 

It  has  for  so  long  been  the  habit,  in  certain  circles 
of  the  academic  and  religious  elect,  to  look  loftily  on 
the  Press,  and  to  regard  the  daily  newspaper  as  akin 
to  the  plagues  of  Egypt  in  noisomeness  and  virulence, 
that  the  request  to  a  newspaper  man  to  present  the 
newspaper  point  of  view  before  a  convention  of  dele- 
gates from  the  chief  universities  and  colleges  of  this 
continent  was  sufficiently  surprising  to  carry  with  it 
the  obligation  of  acceptance.  The  interest  in  the  in- 
cident was  not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  the  con- 
vention was  religious  in  its  spirit  and  missionary  in 
its  motive. 

It  is  the  more  gratifying  to  find  a  demand  for  the 


FOREWORD 


publication  of  this  address  in  more  permanent  form 
because  what  is  here  presented  as  the  point  of  view 
of  a  newspaper  man  is,  in  my  judgment,  a  fair  state- 
ment of  the  attitude  of  the  best  and  most  forceful 
men  on  the  secular  Press  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada  today.  Newspaper  men  are  neither  bohemi- 
ans  nor  philistines,  and  as  the  Press  comes  to  its 
own,  delivered  from  the  thraldom  of  political  parti- 
sanship on  the  one  hand  and  lifted  above  the  braggart 
presence  of  a  race-proud  and  young-blood  jingoism  on 
the  other,  the  newspaper  will  more  and  more  become 
the  vital  instrument  for  the  education  and  direction 
of  public  opinion  in  all  those  matters  and  movements 
which  make  for  the  betterment  of  society  and  the 
greatness  of  life. 

The  truly  great  daily  newspaper  is  in  touch  with  all 
sides  of  life  from  sports  to  religion.  Yellow  journal- 
ism is  not  great.  It  requires  neither  the  best  brains 
nor  the  finest  slcill,  but  only  money  and  a  distempered 
mind. 

And  it  is  well  for  the  best  interests  in  both  individ- 
ual and  national  life  that  the  Press  be  held  true  to  its 
highest  ethical  ideals  and  made  responsive  to  the  so- 
cial motive.  At  this  moment,  both  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  the  honest  and  courageous  pub- 
lic journal  is  the  chief  safeguard  of  the  rights  and  lib- 
erties of  the  people.  Congress  and  Parliament  may 
be  corrupted,  and  may  join  hands  with  the  enemies 
of  public  interests  and  national  honor,  but  the  cause 


FOREWORD  7 

is  not  lost,  and  the  chances  for  reform  and  revival  are 
good,  so  long  as  the  Press  is  unpurchased,  sound- 
hearted  and  strong. 

It  is  true  that  the  Press  has  its  well  defined  limita- 
tions. Perhaps  the  best  it  can  do  for  education,  re- 
ligion, and  social  reform  is  to  clear  the  way  and  to 
create  an  atmosphere  for  the  leaders  to  whom  has 
come  the  Vision  and  the  Whisper  and  the  Power.  So 
much  as  that  the  newspaper  may  do  and,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  it  is  its  duty  deliberately  and  intelligently  to 
undertake. 

To  present  that  as  the  point  of  view  of  a  newspaper 
man  in  reference  to  the  problem  of  world-wide  evang- 
elization, and  to  establish  a  community  of  interest 
and  of  feeling  between  the  leaders  of  the  missionary 
movement  and  the  men  on  the  Press,  is  the  motive 
and  purpose  of  this  address  on  The  Secular  Press 
and  Foreign  Missions. 

J.  A.  Macdonald. 

The  Globe,  Toronto, 
April  19,  1906. 


THE    SECULAR    PRESS   AND 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

What  should  be  the  relation  of  the  secular  Press 
to  the  work  of  Christian  missions  in  non-Christian 
lands?  I  am  asked  to  answer  that  question,  not  as 
an  Ambassador  of  State  who  deals  with  high  politics 
among  the  nations;  not  as  a  missionary  official  at 
home  or  as  a  missionary  worker  abroad;  and  not 
as  a  student  volunteer  in  whose  heart  the  passion 
for  service  burns  with  undimmed  ardor.  None  of 
these  qualifications  or  distinciions  is  mine.  The 
only  apology  for  my  place  on  the  programme  and  my 
presence  on  the  platform  >-  that  I  am  the  managing 
editor  of  a  daily  newspaper.  And  so  the  opportunity 
comes  again  for  some  one  to  ask,  "Is  Saul  also  among 
the  prophets?" 

As  a  man's  point  of  view  is  a  factor  in  his  opinions 
and  judgments,  it  is  right  that  I  should  not  conceal 
the  standpoint  from  which  I  am  to  view  this  ques- 
tion. I  am  a  newspaper  man,  with  the  bias,  the 
limitations,  the  instincts  and  the  traditions  of  my 
craft.  For  the  moment  I  am  not  specially  concerned 
with  the  religious  interests  at  home  or  the  missionary 
activities  abroad.  My  perspective,  my  ambitions, 
my  ideals  are  those  of  the  newspaper  office. 

Now  for  our  question.  Here  we  have  the  secular 
Press,  sending  its  line  into  all  the  earth,  making  its 


««  THE    SECULAR    PRESS 

voice  heard  from  Florida  to  the  Yulton,  the  teacher 
of  the  public  mind,  the  organ  of  public  opinion,  the 
university  of  the  common  people.  Now,  what  is  the 
relation  of  that  institution  to  the  foreign  missionary 
movement  ? 

I  answer  that  question,  as  is  a  Scotsman's  right, 
by  asking  another,  and,  being  a  Canadian  Scot,  I  ask 
two;  First,  What  is  the  function  of  the  Press?  and, 
second.  What  is  the  newspaper  value  of  missionary 
incidents  and  missionary  movements  ? 

I.  The  function  of  the  newspaper  is,  in  a  word,  to 
be  what  it  professes  to  be  —  a  news  paper.  Its  pri- 
mary function  is  the  collecting,  the  organizing,  the 
interpreting  and  the  disseminating  of  news.  The 
daily  newspaper  presents  a  report  of  the  world's  do- 
ings for  one  day.  It  holds  the  mirror  up  to  life,  and 
reflects  the  facts  of  life  with  more  or  less  definiteness 
of  outline  and  truth  of  proportion.  All  sorts  of  facts 
are  reflected  because  all  sorts  of  facts  are  there. 
Quarrel  with  the  facts  of  life  — with  its  murder,  and 
theft,  and  bribery,  and  divorce,  and  graft,  and  per- 
jury, and  multiform  immorality  —  quarrel  with  the 
facts  before  you  quarrel  with  their  reflection.  Change 
those  facts  into  things  of  beauty  and  their  reflection 
in  the  daily  newspaper  will  b„  a  joy  forever. 

The  proportion  and  the  perspective  of  the  news- 
paper, the  space  given  to  this  class  of  news  and  to 
that,  the  sweep  of  its  survey  and  the  interpretation 
of  its  facts,  will  depend  on  the  resources  of  its  count- 


( 


AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  ii 

ing-room,  the  needs  of  its  constituency  and  the  qual- 
ity of  its  ideal. 

The  typical  up-to-date  newspaper  has  its  eyes  on 
the  ends  of  the  earth.  Not  only  the  social  function 
in  the  next  street,  but  to-night's  happenings  in  poli- 
tics, in  trade,  in  international  affairs,  whether  they 
be  in  Britain,  or  continental  Europe,  or  Africa,  or 
the  Orient,  will  be  told  in  the  morning  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  Press  has  its 
finger-tips  on  the  pulse  of  the  world,  and  the  heart- 
beats of  civilization  are  counted  and  the  health  of  the 
world  bulletined  in  the  office  of  the  daily  newspaper. 
II.  Now,  in  that  world-survey  should  a  place  be 
made  for  news  and  views  of  the  world's  evangeliza- 
tion? A  place  is  made  for  world-wide  politics,  and 
trade,  and  social  scandal,  and  industrial  revolutions, 
and  wars  and  rumors  of  wars.  Of  all  these  the  Asso- 
ciated Press  tells  the  story,  and  special  cables  supply 
the  "scoops."  A  "scoop,"  or  a  "beat,"  in  diplomacy, 
or  in  foreign  politics,  or  in  international  intrigue  is  a 
front-page  feature  for  a  wide-awake  newspaper.  Of 
what  value  is  a  "scoop"  in  foreign  missions? 

I  answer  that  question,  not  as  a  missionary  or  a 
missionary  advocate,  but  solely  as  the  editor-in-chief 
of  a  daily  newspaper,  and  I  say  that  in  my  judgment 
the  work  of  Christian  missions  in  non-Christian  lands 
contains,  and  could  be  made  to  supply,  as  important 
news,  and  often  as  sensational  a  story,  as  is  ever  car- 
ried by  the  cables  or  told  by  the  Press. 


12  THE    SECULAR    PRESS 

What  gives  public  interest  and  sensation  to  any 
news  item  from  a  foreign  land  f  It  is  its  broadly  hu- 
man features,  its  intimacy  of  touch  with  thought  and 
life  at  home,  and  its  bearing  on  the  fortunes  of  civili- 
zation abroad.  And  those  characteristics  belong  to 
incidents  and  movements  in  foreign  missions  just  as 
truly  and  quite  as  largely  as  to  news  that  originates 
in  the  secret  places  of  the  diplomats,  or  at  the  Lega- 
tions, or  in  the  Foreign  Office,  or  among  the  traders 
or  capitalists  or  social  nabobs. 

(1)1  have  said  that  a  foreign  news  item  to  be  inter- 
esting must  have  broadly  human  features.  Every  ed- 
itor knows  the  newspaper  value  of  the  human  element 
in  a  story.  A  thing  might  happen  in  Nashville  to- 
night, the  parties  involved  might  be  obscure  and 
hitherto  unheard-of,  but  in  the  incident  there  might 
be  condensed  and  concentrated  some  of  the  master 
passions,  some  of  the  universal  elements  of  human  na- 
ture, and  that  story  would  be  flashed  to  New  York, 
to  Chicago,  to  San  Francisco,  to  Toronto,  and  would 
be  read  with  intensest  interest  to-morrow  morning 
by  a  million  people  who  never  saw  Nashville  or  heard 
of  those  involved  in  the  story.  The  human  element 
makes  appeal  to  the  human  heart  and  furnishes  the 
essentials  of  a  newspaper  story. 

So,  too,  with  incidents  and  movements  in  China, 
in  India,  in  Japan,  in  Africa,  and  in  all  the  fields  of 
foreign  mission  enterprise.  In  every  one  of  those 
fields  new  illustrations  are  supplied  of  the  great  forces 


AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


>3 


and  features  in  human  life  — the  high  courage,  the  he- 
roic endurance,  the  significant  triumph,  the  spiritual 
tragedy.  What  is  needed  is  the  reporter  with  the 
true  newspaper  instinct,  and  the  happenings  of  the 
mission  field  would  be  woven  into  a  newspaper  story. 
And  the  day  is  coming  when  the  genius  of  the  fiction 
writer  will  discover  and  utilize  the  wealth  of  material 
provided  in  the  conflict  of  Christianity  with  heathen- 
ism. What  Ralph  Connor  has  done  for  the  lumber 
camps  of  the  Ottawa,  the  ranches  of  the  Foothills  and 
the  mining  towns  of  the  Rocki'  3  some  one  will  yet  do 
for  the  mission  fields  of  Africa  and  the  Orient.  And 
if  meanwhile  we  newspaper  editors  in  America,  in 
the  rush  and  strain  of  our  crowded  lives,  are  slow  to 
recognize  the  newspaper  value  of  foreign  mission  in- 
cidents, we  can  comfort  ourselves  with  the  reflection 
that  the  great  publishing  houses  of  the  United  States 
declined  Ralph  Connor's  first  book  because  of  its  re- 
ligious and  missionary  qualities ;  and  you  friends  of 
missions  may  be  encouraged  to  hope  for  our  enlight- 
enment and  conversion  when  you  reflect  that  "Black 
Rock,"  although  refused  at  first,  has  been  published 
by  nearly  every  respectable  pirate  house  in  the  United 
States  in  successive  editions  ranging  from  50,000  to 
half  a  million  each.  Book  publishers  as  well  as  news- 
paper editors  come  to  learn  that  the  great  human 
heart  is  incurably  interested  in  the  agelong  and 
world-wide  human  struggle. 
(2)  I  have  also  said  that  the  news  of  foreign  mis- 


14 


THE    SECULAR    PRESS 


sioM  it  in  intimate  touch  with  life  at  home,  and, 
therefore,  hat  real  journalistic  value.  Foreign  af- 
fairs —  trade,  politics,  sports  —  are  of  newspaper 
value  in  proportion  to  the  local  interest.  The  recent 
general  elections  in  Britain  were  of  interest  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  in  the  United  States  and  Canada 
who  came  'rom  Britain,  or  who,  for  commercial  rea- 
sons, were  concerned  in  matters  of  tariff  and  trade. 
For  that  reason  the  cables  were  kept  hot  with  reports 
of  the  speeches  and  of  the  voting.  Is  there  not  in- 
terest as  widespread  and  as  keen  throughout  this 
country  in  the  incidents  and  progress  of  worldwide 
evangelization  ?  Are  there  not  hundreds  of  thousands 
throughout  the  south  and  the  north  and  the  west  and 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  who  have  children  or  rela- 
tives engaged  in  the  schools  and  hospitals  and  evan- 
gelistic work  of  foreign  missions?  And  are  there 
not  literally  millions  who  give  of  their  means  and 
who  intercede  in  their  prayers  for  the  sake  of  that 
missionary  work  ?  Those  facts  are  indisputable  evi- 
dence of  a  widespread  and  enduring  interest  which 
the  secular  Press  cannot  aSord  to  minimize  or  neg- 
lect. 

(3)  Once  more,  I  have  said  that  the  newspaper  in- 
terest of  a  foreign  news  item  is  in  part  dependent  on 
its  bearing  on  the  progress  of  civilization  abroad.  The 
newspaper  is  an  institution  of  civilization.  It  owes  to 
civilization  its  existence,  its  freedom,  and  its  power. 
And  it  is  under  obligation  to  promote  civilization,  to 


AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


■5 


strengthen  iti  aggreuive  agencies  and  to  defend  its 
world-wide  interests. 

That  obligation  to  civilization  involves  an  obliga- 
tion to  missions.  The  civiliiation  which  we  U-  w 
and  approve,  under  which  we  live,  and  to  which  *e 
owe  what  is  most  worth  while  in  our  life,  is  a  Chris- 
tian civiliiation,  awakened,  organized,  developed,  vi- 
talized and  kept  from  corruption  and  collapse,  not  by 
Congress  or  Parliament,  not  by  trade  and  industry, 
not  by  great  corporations  and  financial  institutions, 
but,  more  than  by  all  other  influences,  by  the  rejuve- 
nating, inspiring,  cleansing  forces  and  agencies  of  the 
Christian  faith.  And  until  we  have  seen  somewhere 
in  actual  life  a  civilization  that  can  live,  and  that  de- 
serves to  live,  apart  from  and  independent  of  a  vital 
Christian  faith  we  are  bound,  whtn  we  send  acmss 
the  seas  our  trade  and  our  scii  .itific  knowledge  and 
our  political  influence,  to  send  also  those  spiritual  and 
Christian  elements  which  have  safeguarded  and  vital- 
ized our  civilization  at  home. 

III.  What  can  the  secular  Press  do,  what  can  rea- 
sonably be  expected  of  it,  in  relation  to  the  world- 
wide missionary  movement  i 

(i)  It  can  master  the  missionary  problem  as  thor- 
oughly as  it  masters  the  political  problem,  or  the  so- 
cial problem,  or  the  industrial  problem,  or  any  other 
problem  that  touches  the  life  and  progress  of  a  for- 
eign people.  On  the  staff  of  every  newspaper  that 
can  afford  an  expert  in  finance  and  trade  and  econom- 


l6 


THE    SECULAR    PRESS 


ici  and  iporti  there  ihould  be  an  expert  in  mattera  o( 
religioua  and  miaiionary  intereit,  who  would  aave  the 
paper  from  the  miataket  and  miarepreienlationa  and 
nterpretatlona  which  would  not  be  tolerated  in 
any  other  department. 

(i)  It  should  report  the  facta  of  the  miaiionary 
movement,  it>  organizations  at  home  and  ita  enter- 
prises abroad,  with  the  same  intelligence  and  fairness 
as  is  done  in  the  esse  of  other  matters  end  move- 
ments. A  newspaper  that  would  confuse  the  termin- 
ology of  sports  or  misuse  the  nomenclature  of  the  law 
courts  or  of  politics  would  betray  ignorance  and  suf- 
fer disgrace.  Its  ignorance  is  as  real  and  its  dis- 
grace should  be  as  certain  when  its  reports  and  com- 
ments on  rcligons  affairs  are  confused  and  misleading. 

(3)  It  should  stand  for  that  type  of  civilization  at 
home  which  can  justly  claim  the  right  to  extend  it- 
self abroad  and  project  itself  over  the  world.  Only 
that  civilization  which  is  superior  and  living  is  worth 
transplanting  and  has  the  right  to  endure.  There 
are  features  in  our  life,  types  in  our  civilization  —  po- 
litical, commercial,  indust'ial,  social  —  which  are  lo- 
cal, selfish,  blameworthy,  and  which  would  be  a  bur- 
den and  a  curse  to  any  nation  that  adopted  them.  By 
standing  against  those  types  and  features,  by  resist- 
ing them,  by  having  them  repudiated  as  being  alien 
and  antagonistic  to  the  civilization  of  America,  the 
Press  of  this  country  would  not  only  check  the  forces 
that  make  for  corruption  and  decay  at  home,  but 


AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


17 


would  prcient  to  natlona  abroad  a  type  of  civilitation 
that  de»erve>  to  be  tupreme,  that  hai  in  it  the  ele- 
menta  that  endure,  and  that  it  deitined  to  touch  to 
finer  iiiuei  the  life  of  the  world. 

(4)  The  secular  Preu  can  aid  the  miiiionary  cause 
by  itanding  for  honor  and  truth  and  a  square  deal  in 
the  relations  of  Christian  nations  with  the  nations 
and  peoples  and  tribes  of  the  non-Christian  world. 
The  British  nation  is  the  greatest  secular  power  mak- 
ing for  righteousness  and  civilitation  which  a  thou- 
sand years  of  history  knows,  but  the  records  of  Brit- 
ish diplomacy,  of  British  trade,  uf  Itritish  expansion, 
In  India,  in  China,  in  Africa,  are  not  unstained,  else 
we  had  no  mutiny,  no  enforced  opium  tradi.,  and  no 
Jameson  raids,  with  the  horror  and  shame  and  un- 
speakable dishonor  that  followed  in  their  train.  Look 
you  to  your  affairs,  you  men  of  the  American  Repub- 
lic, and  see  if  there  be  in  your  diplomacy  and  foreign 
trade  and  new-born,  far-flying  imperialism  anything 
of  which  your  citizens,  did  they  but  know  it,  ought 
to  be  ashamed.  By  standing  against  those  wrongs 
the  Press  of  this  country  would  give  Christian  nations 
prestige  abroad,  would  promote  the  civilization  and 
elevate  the  life  of  non-Christian  peoples,  and  would 
give  the  missionary  an  undishonored  standing  and  a 
fair  chance. 

(5)  The  Press  can  still  further  and  more  definitely 
serve  the  missionary  movement  by  being  intelligent 
and  fair  in  its  treatment  of  the  missionary  problem. 


I< 


THE    SECULAR    PRESS 


informed  in  its  discussion  of  missionary  methods, 
accurate  in  its  estimate  of  missionary  results,  and  just 
in  its  criticisms  of  missionary  workers.  No  immun- 
ity is  asked,  no  exemption  from  criticism,  but  only 
intelligence,  fairness,  and  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
services  to  the  world's  knowledge  and  progress  which 
the  missionaries  have  rendered.  There  is  demanded, 
too,  an  honest  and  reasonable  sense  of  the  civil  rights 
of  missionaries  under  the  same  treaties  which  secure 
the  rights  of  traders  and  travellers.  And  it  is  within 
the  scope  of  the  Press  not  only  to  criticize  mission- 
aries, but  also  to  criticize  the  uninformed  and  preju- 
diced critics  of  missionaries,  the  vagabond  globe-trot- 
ters whose  lust  has  cursed  the  natives  and  whose  per- 
fidy the  missionaries  condemn. 

(6)  Once  more,  the  Press  can  serve  the  causes  of 
civilization  and  evangelization  by  reading  the  move- 
ments of  history  and  interpreting  the  developments 
of  human  society  so  as  to  allow  for  those  spiritual 
forces  without  which  civilization  had  not  been,  and 
apart  from  which  there  could  even  now  be  no  endur- 
ing progress.  The  men  who  report  and  record  the 
doings  of  the  day  must  co-ordinate  those  incidents 
and  events  into  movements,  and  must  relate  those 
movements  to  the  increasing  purpose  that  runs 
through  the  ages  and  gives  meaning  and  worth  to 
the  history  of  the  world.  Sending  cotton  from  the 
American  south  and  wheat  from  the  Canadian  west, 
and  bringing  back  rice  and  tea  and  silk  from  the  Ori- 


AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONS 


19 


ent,  is  not  all  there  is  in  the  relations  of  the  East  and 
the  West.  It  is  not  by  accident  that  at  the  very  time 
when  the  East  is  awakening  to  a  new  and  deep  sense 
of  need  there  is  going  on  in  the  West  a  reconceiving 
and  reforming  of  Christian  truth  for  universal  ends, 
and  a  reorganizing  of  Christian  forces  for  world-wide 
service.  These  coincidences  do  not  come  by  chance. 
The  men  who  stand  alert  and  aware  upon  the  watch- 
towers  and  scan  the  far  horizon  line,  noting  the  day's 
happenings  in  the  world's  trade  and  politics  and 
social  life,  are  not  blind  to  the  deep  significance  of 
the  situation  in  China,  and  India,  and  Africa,  and 
the  islands  of  the  sea,  where  the  doors  of  oppor- 
tunity stand  open  wide,  and  a  million  tongues  cry 
aloud  and  a  million  hands  are  stretched  out  for  the 
help  of  a  larger,  fuller  life;  nor  are  they  blind  to 
the  equally  deep  significance  of  the  missionary 
movement  which  has  gathered  such  force  in  the 
churches,  and  colleges,  and  universities  of  tnis  con- 
tinent and  of  Christendom,  of  which  this  Conven- 
tion of  Student  Volunteers  is  such  emphatic  expres- 
sion; nor  are  they,  the  best  men  on  the  secular  Press, 
unbelieving  as  to  the  mighty,  all-embracing  purpose 
that  runs  through  the  currents  and  confusions  of  both 
East  and  West,  making  slowly  and  by  wide  circuits, 
but  steadily  and  surely,  for  the  day-dawn  of  universal 
peace  and  truth  and  good-will. 

The  missionary  motive  is  the  dynamic  of  civiliza- 
tion.    The  Cross  of  Christ  is  the  philosophy  of  the 


20  THE  PRESS  AND  MISSIONS 

world's  history.  The  Christian  evangel  is  the  soul 
of  the  world's  hope.  And  the  impulse  of  the  world's 
progress  is  in  the  redemptive  purpose  of  God  — 


That  God,  which  ever  lives  and  loves, 
One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  far-off  divine  event 

To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. 


